Home Designs Master | Valentina Expressions

What’s Under Your Feet? | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

24 Apr 2012 8 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #AlternativeFlooring, #DecoratingTips, #EcoFriendlyFlooring, #RedVoyageIntoColors, #SoftFloorTiles, #SoftTiles, Red-A Voyage Into Colors

I have been incredibly busy creating and preparing new products for the Internet and the launch of my third book on the subject of colors. Yippee!
©RED-A Voyage Into Colors will be released in the next month. In 2009, when I said I will be writing 5 books in the next 5 years was absolutely true. This third book is on time with the realization of my goals. Goals without actions are just daydreams, as we all know. Aside from this I am designing and remodeling a home in France through Skype line without moving an inch from my desk in California. Technology is my second name.

This is in brief what I am doing, but behind the scene, there is a lot more going on, so much so that sometimes things go unobserved. Yesterday, I was exercising in the park and saw the kids’ playground flooring made with soft tiles (photo above). I have seen that area for ages, but I really never paid attention. Designers give it for granted that people know what we know and it is not true. It gave me the idea to write about it.

In Italy, some times ago, I designed a wine cellar in the Renaissance style. My Client went to the island of Murano, near Venice and had the glass master reproducing historic Renaissance wine glasses from a photograph.
I hate to tell you how much he paid for a set of 12 glasses, but that was exactly the reason I used soft tiles on the floor of his wine cellar to protect those absurdly expensive wine glasses from hitting the ground and breaking.

Play Area

Soft tiles are a good application for kids’ room and kids’ playground. They are perfect for study and library rooms, basements, or if you need to make an area in your home silent, even bedrooms. They are relaxing for the knees, inexpensive, come in many colors, even in wood texture and they are “green”.

What are they made of? They are made from a non-toxic EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate) foam. There you have it. Soft tiles are wonderful.

Let me know if you have an interest in saving your glasses, you knees, or you kids’ face. I am here at your service and nothing is ever a difficult job for me, not even from here to across the pond.

As I mentioned above I offer design consultations on-line, as a new feature of my business since two years ago. Tell your customers, friends and people in your circle that now they can hire me, see me though a computer screen, they will still receive architectural drawings from me if they need to get the house designed and remodeled, without Valentina being there, resulting in a huge savings for them. The traditional face-to-face consultations are still available. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.Valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is a trained Italian Interior Designer in business since 1990. Being Italian born and raised, Valentina’s design work has been influenced by Classicism and stylish, timeless designs. She is a designer well-known to bring originality to people’s homes. As an Italian designer and true to her origins, she provides only the best workmanship and design solutions.
She is the author of three books available on

Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Excited in Grey | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

25 Mar 2012 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #BedroomDesign, #BedroomStyle, #ColorCoordination, #DesigninWithGrey, #GreenandGreyCombination, #RedVoyageIntoColors

This weekend, in this part of the world, we are having a spring grey day, but that did not stop me from thinking colors, excitement or positive vibrations. Outside is raining and the sky is cerulean grey, the type of grey that encourages curling up near a fireplace with a book and a cup of hot cacao.
Cerulean grey, I like how it describes itself and the message that communicates. It has a bit of light blue and faint aqua blue mixed in with grey. Cerulean grey is playful and warm, not like the heavy, depressing battle ship grey.
A person with cerulean eyes and dark hair has a high contrast face, which lends itself to beautiful combinations. First of all, grey alone is a very elegant color, together with black and white makes a classic combination. I love to wear grey pearls over a white shirt, jeans, black gloves and black shoes. Cerulean or not, I thought of a few very exciting things I can do with the color grey.

On eBay, I found this new 4 pieces bed set and duvet filled with sunflowers over pearl grey for only $98.00. A snip! http://tinyurl.com/84hbe7d

Another beautiful choice, again on eBay, is the green base cotton 4 pieces bed set and duvet with large yellow tulips. The soft grey in the leaves is gentle and very pleasant, together with grey flooring and some few grey lampshades in the room, the environment is inviting. Try these colors, they will slap the grey out of a rainy day!
http://tinyurl.com/7x3e378

A Canadian company presents the eco-green collection in the tones of aqua green and stone. As you can see the accent in this room display is the red lampshade (I imagine there is more than one lamp) that warms up the cool grey tone palette.

The set from the same company called Floral is so chic and elegant. I love the chocolate satin piping against the light grey and golden tone floral design.
With this combination, the walls in the room can pick up a golden cream color and much more chocolate-brown accents to echo the piping.
http://www.highlandfeather.com/linen/Floral.htm

Frette, the famous Italian linen company presents Tundra, a stunning mixing of gray into beige.
The grey slate flooring under the bed gives the right shabby chic attitude to the setting. I love natural materials!
Bed below source: Frette.

For a long time the color grey has been regarded as a boring color fit for seniors, but in this decade grey has assumed a younger attitude. More fashion companies are using grey paired with raspberry, yellow, pink, orange. Gray and yellow have been a new inspiration for weddings themes too.

Since I cannot cook anything grey, oh, that would look so unappetizing if it did exist, I am going to make may usual colorful orange muffins, the house will smell sweet and colorful. Take advantage of these new color solutions, but if you get stuck in your color selection for home or for the color you wear, I am here to help. I am one call or email away. Look out for the launch of ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors, my new book on the subject of colors. Ciao.
Valentina

http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer and former Fashion Designer, working in the USA and Europe since 1990. She blends well fashion with interior and colors the world of her clients. She has been described as “the colorist” and loves to create the unusual.

Check out her books on

Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0

Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Woman’s Day In Yellow | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

08 Mar 2012 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #DecoratingTips, #DecoratingWithYellow, #DesigningWithColors, #FlowerArrangement, #InternationalWomanDay, #MimosaCocktail, #RedVoyageIntoColors, #YellowColorScheme

March 8th is the International Woman’s Day.
It is traditional on this day to give yellow mimosa flowers to women as a sign of respect and solidarity. This is a day to celebrate appreciation and love towards women and to celebrate women’s economic, political and social achievements. Women give Mimosa to each other as well.

Yellow is one of the many colors that characterizes spring and summer. A controversial color that makes people feel happy, but creates anxiety; it is the color of the sun, which gives life to nature, but as the autumn approaches, the leaves turn yellow, lose their life and die. It is a cheerful color, however not many people can wear it, they feel either washed out or don’t feel good in yellow. Being a bit of a difficult, but inviting color, how can we include yellow in our fashion or homes?

Orienting your color scheme to your own particular hair and skin coloring is a good practice to make a pleasing cosmetic environment. The same practice is valid when decorating any spaces we live in. Before pairing colors with yellow, we should know how to distinguish each yellow. (Click on each photo to view it larger).

Winter and summer yellow is stripped of any gold reflexes. Winter yellow is pale like the winter sunlight. Spring yellow is hot and delicate, like the yellow of the daffodils; summer yellow is riper as the pineapple and it is also sharp as lemon; the autumn yellow is deep mustard gold.

White is the neutral color needed to calm the yellow and it is perfect for the blue-based winter and summer skin tone, as it brings out the pink tone in their skin and make them look healthy. Winter and summer people can use yellow in home décor with a good amount of white. White washes out people with golden tones skin. Spring and autumn people need to turn to creamy beige colors.

It is good to pair yellow with metals. Add silver for people with a blue-based skin tones and gold for people with yellow-based skin tones to bring out their warm coloration. Brown and purple are perfect colors to tone down the yellow. As you see in bedroom photograph, a metallic yellow is the accent color in the bedspread, pillows and glass details.

It communicates well with the metallic purple, the silver coloration of the floor and the white light of the lamp, but what brings everything together is the golden brown of the wood furniture with a yellow tone. This room will work well with an autumn person.

The right cosmetic color will lift our spirit and light up our face, it will work the same in our home décor, after all if one color doesn’t look good on us, it will not look good in our environment either. The walls or décor will reflect the wrong energy and we will never feel comfortable in that space.

Mimosa (acacia dealbata) was introduced to Europe from Australia in 1820.
It is probably the first tree to flower as early as January with yellow flowers.

A Mimosa Cocktail to serve at a morning brunch is the easiest drink to prepare:
Mix one part champagne (or other sparkling wine) and one part thoroughly chilled citrus fruit juice, orange juice or grapefruit juice. It is traditionally served in a tall champagne flute.

In substitution, you can make an apple juice kicked up with ginger as in my photo above.

Tomorrow, celebrate your beautiful self and give a woman a mimosa.

My book on the subject of colors RED-A Voyage Into Colors is just about ready to be released. Stay tuned for the launch, but if in the meantime you need suggestions on colors, please do not hesitate to leave your name in the box below. Ciao,
Valentina
www.Valentinadesigns.com

*******

Check out her books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

My Red Philosophy | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

25 Feb 2012 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #DecoratingTips, #DesigningWithColors, #NatureInspiration, #RedVoyageIntoColors, #ValentinaCirasolaAuthor

Lovely to place another check mark near my goals with the word DONE. Here I am at my third book, finishing up the publishing process.
©Red-A Voyage Into Colors will be released in the Spring 2012.

In this book, I have talked about colors in our spaces, homes, offices, gardens, fashion, food and astrology. I have also included easy studies on colors for those readers who want to learn how to make colors, learn how to see and interpret them, or learn to understand their psychology. Oh, yes, wear the wrong colors and the face will show signs of aging, the body will look awkward, out of proportions and the wrong colors in the house will give us headache.

The philosophy of ©Red-A Voyage Into Colors is based on the playful nature’s colors we have been gifted with and that we enjoy every day. It was easy to think of nature and write about it. I get up in the morning and salute the sun. Even when it rains, I welcome the gray colors of a wet day and wear the brightest colors in my wardrobe as a propitiatory dance to let the sun return into my life, but in the meantime I enjoy the changing of weather. Nature is my inspiration, always.
Color is life! We live under a blue sky and a yellow sun; a silver moon kisses us at night; we swim in green-blue seas and climb on brown mountains; we stroll in green parks and forests, our gardens are filled with a profusion of colored flowers. Nature has done it all for us, we can just copy it and celebrate. We are the nature; we are the colors.

©Valentina Cirasola

A jolt of happiness travels through our brain and body when we get up in the morning and see beautiful colors in our house and then again when we go into the closet to select special color combinations fit for the occasion of the day.
With the promise of a colorful day that will put our disposition on a positive track, why would anyone live without colors?

So many people spend their life in dreadful beige homes, or worse in the colors for resale value, living not in colorful spaces of their liking, but living the life of the next buyer. People are so afraid of colors and yet colors have flavors, emotions, harmony and music. Colors play along with the daily rotation of the sun transforming their structure and light each time the sun touches each colored surface with its warm rays and because there is rhythm in colors, let’s not forget that each colors will increase our creativity, or inspire us.

Allow yourself to experiment with various color combinations and challenge your fantasy, when in doubt, always refer to nature.

I have produced one book a year for the last three years. I can really say nothing is impossible! I know which book will be next, I will leave that news for later.
Stay tuned for the release of ©Red-A Voyage Into Colors, hardcover, filled with my photographs and my drawings.

I am available for hiring in speaking engagements on colors and how we can use colors to our advantages. Ciao.
www.Valentinadesigns.com

Check her two published books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Tète-à-Tète | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

21 Feb 2012 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ChairDesign, #CustomDesignedFurniture, #HeartConeChair, #HistoryOfFurniture, #tèteàtètechair, #TrendyChairs, Victorian Style

February is a cold month in most parts of the world, fortunately is warmed up with the fuzzy theme of love. Thinking of love, the tète-à-tète chair comes to mind.

(Stone tète-à-tète chair via Pinterest)

Typical and essential piece of décor for gardens and interiors, the tète-à-tète chair marked an era when a man could only court a woman by looking not by touching and under the vigilant eyes of her relatives. It was designed for coziness, close enough to look at each other in the eyes, occasional brushing elbows could slip out, but the armrest in the middle divided the two sexes keeping them at a certain distance.

Actually, the chair didn’t serve only lovers. Gossipers also used it while sitting together. Sitting face-to-face was favorable to discretely passing in each other’s ears all the juicy details of someone else’s life, or of a person present in the room unaware of being the subject of interest. The tète-à-tète chair allowed women to sit comfortably with fashionable belled up dresses with cumbersome crinoline underneath.

(Above photo found on https://www.etsy.com/listing/500135605/sonia-messer-tete-a-tete)

(Above photo, French Victorian seat, found on: http://www.newel.com/products.php)

Fast forward a couple of centuries and we see some new versions of the tète-à-tète chair. I have to admit warmth and coziness are gone, but they are attractive in their own unique modernity. The black and white of the Eli-Fly Chair is very graphic, the lines are slim, sensuous and lonely. The two chairs can face each other at a distance, or can be set closer to make caressing a little easier. But it seems to me this is a type of chair the people in “need of their space” would buy.

(Eli-Fly-Lounge-Chairs by Deisree)

More modern versions of the tète-à-tète chair are also available for the garden in wrought iron or wood. I have seen a pretty set painted in blue in one of the historical establishments in California. They wrap them around trees, where people can relax with a book and courtship under a magnolia tree might be possible again.

I absolutely adore the Heart Cone Chair designed by Verner Panton in 1959 and reissued by renowned furniture company Vitra.
Price of the Heart Cone Chair: $3,670. Precious!
It would fit beautifully in any décor and in any empty corner. Red is imposing, calls for attention, but this chairs brings passion.
“Most people spend their lives in dreary beige conformity, mortally afraid of using colors,” Panton said, in the mid-1950s. I could not agree more.

What does this chair have to do with the tète-à-tète chair of Victorian time? Nothing. The heart is already there, it needs two people to sit in each other’s lap and the tète-à-tète picture is complete.

Let me support you in finding your uniqueness in décor and style, but don’t forget to leave your name down below. Ciao,
Valentina
www.Valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola has been a lifetime designer in fashion and interiors. Her extensive knowledge of colors and materials led her in both directions successfully. She is well-known for designing custom furniture. She cares to make spacious and functional pieces, but she doesn’t forget to introduce the element of surprise, sinuous lines, attractive shapes and color in the style fit for each of her special clients.
She is the author of ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors, her forthcoming book on the subject of colors, due to be released in the Spring 2012. Check out her first two books on

©Come Mia Nonna: http://goo.gl/T0eL36
©Sin of A Queen: http://goo.gl/JA4WMO

Funky Sofas | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

07 Feb 2012 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #AnumalPrintSofa, #CustomDesignedFurniture, #DecoratingTips, #FunkySofa, #FurnitureDesign, #RoundSofa

This month I am searching for a sofa, would love to have a funky one for me, but for right now I need to get on with my search and find one exceptional for a client. Funky shapes and vivid colors attract me. Will they attract the client too? She is young and seems to be receptive to new ideas. I can surprise her, stand back and observe her reaction, or I can play safe presenting her all traditional shapes and perhaps get an indifferent face reaction.

Actually in my design world, nothing is left to the chance and nothing is a guessing game. So much thought and planning goes into a design concept. Sometimes a client takes months to come out with a decision, it is almost like a light bulb comes on suddenly for a surge of electricity and sometimes the decision comes so quickly that I have to put a break and let them ponder for a short while.

The cleverness of a designer is to avoid the first scenario from happening, risking of losing the availability of one particular item and have to start the search all over again, putting in the trash precious time and effort already spent. The best strategy that will help the designer understanding a new client, whose habits, likes and dislikes might not be totally known is called “talking and asking”. That’s right, I talk and ask a lot of questions, instead of roaming in the dark. After that is rock and roll designing and composing the project together with the client.

Avanti Lounge – https://www.avantifinefurniture.com

Lunar Mini Round-http://furniture-times.com/lunar-mini-round-lounge-sofa/

Rug Sofa by:Tonio de Roover – http://freshome.com/2008/03/04/the-carpet-sofa

Cow Sofa-Rodolfo Rocchetti of Tappezzeria Rocchetti

Ballon Sofa-Feel Seating System designed by Animi Causa

Tiger Sofa- Rodolfo Rocchetti from Tappezzeria Rocchetti

The selection of even one piece of furniture must be coordinated with the existing pieces and colors in the room. For a designer with a clinical eye it should not be a hard thing to do. Introducing a new color, or a new piece of furniture is like putting together a group of friends, they all must get along, otherwise there will be trouble in the air. Conversely an empty room is a blank canvas for anyone and the road to freedom of choice.

In my client’s home, the room I am designing is an empty canvas, kids and adults will be using this room, that’s why is important to remember to buy for various tastes and style preferences. The new sofa in this room will not be the primary seat, it will be a corner filler, a conversation piece, or a mood piece just to play around. Based on my conversation with her, I know I can dare with something fun, funky and colorful. I can’t wait for her reaction. The last three lounge pieces in red and orange are from Scandinavian Designs, way under $1,000. The others are Italian or European made.

Searching for furniture pieces is part of my every day work. Please let me know if I can help you or anyone you know in this task. Brighten your home with something out of the ordinary, even if you have a traditional décor, it will break the routine and feed the soul. Ciao,
Valentina
www.Valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola has been a lifetime designer in fashion and interiors.
Her extensive knowledge of colors and materials led her in both directions successfully. She is well-know for designing custom furniture. She cares to make spacious and functional pieces, but she doesn’t forget to introduce the element of surprise, sinuous lines, attractive shapes and colors in the style fit for each of her special clients. She is the author of ©RED – A Voyage Into Colors, her forthcoming book on the subject of colors due to be released in the spring 2012.
Check out her books on

Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Hunted and Saved | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

20 Jan 2012 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #DecoratingTips, #FurnitureDesign, #FurnitureMakeover, #FurniturePainting, #HistoryOfFurniture, #RestoringFurniture, Découpage

For a few days now, I have been going around the house looking to give a second life to some old pieces. Strong of the experience I had a few years ago, I am ready to repeat the artistic experience with a new piece. Sundays are perfect days to go bargain hunting around garage sales and flea markets. I love flea markets! In one of those excursions, I found a few old pieces of furniture and ventured through the refinishing process.

There are a few things you need to do before you tackle a refinishing of a piece of furniture. First, you don’t know where the piece has been before you and how the previous owner used it, unless someone tells you the history. Disinfect, clean it really well and keep it in an open and well-ventilated place for a few days to eliminate previous odors. While you are deciding on the transformation of the piece, the new design, color, pattern or the overall new look, I would suggest taking pictures of the piece and visiting some reputable antique dealer who will tell you just by looking at the photograph if it is a valuable piece or not. If it is a value piece you might want to leave it as is, just give it a good clean, otherwise if it gets restyled into a new life, the piece will lose its antique/historical value.

The refinishing process is very easy. Strip old paints and varnishes with a coarse sand paper by using a sanding machine or plain elbow grease, which I like better as it is another way to exercise muscles. The plain wood grain will surface again in all its beauty. At this point you can decide to leave it natural to emphasize the wood grain and apply only transparent varnishes, or you can paint it in your favorite colors. My photographs show painted examples, découpage and antique finishes.

Painted Line Chest by ©Valentina Cirasola

Painted Line Chest – Detail – by ©Valentina Cirasola

Dust off the remaining of the sanding with a soft cloth; make it really clean, you must not feel any grain under your fingertips. Apply a coat of primer paint to cover all the imperfections, wait until it dries well, sand it lightly with a less coarse sanding paper, and dust it off again. The surface must be really clean every time another coat of paint goes on.

Apply the first coat of the paint color of your choice. Let it dry. If the result is good, then the piece is almost done, but if it needs another coat of paint, sand it lightly again, dust it off and apply a second coat.

(Venetian Chest paint by Douglas Greenberg)

Most of my pieces have been speckled at the end. With a small brush I splashed a dark varnish here and there for interest. Highlighting all the details is the fun parts. The style of the piece of furniture will dictate whether the highlights will be antique or contemporary style.

Découpage is always done as the last detail. The only items needed are a flat brush, a découpage glue and an image, nothing to it.
If you like to draw an image free hand, that step is also done after the piece has received the last coat of paint. Trace the image with a carbon paper; with a brush go over the line drawing and paint your image with the selected colors. This is the easiest way to apply a design. Stenciling a design over the top coat is another way, but this takes a good skill. Seal the découpage, stencil work or any drawing with a non-yellowing water base varnish.

Venetian Painted Chest by ©Valentina Cirasola

(Painted sky blue chest photos ©Valentina Cirasola)

Now it is time to apply the jewelry. Get your fantasy in motion, use anything and everything for drawer pulls, or door knobs. One of my cabinets has a pair of hearings as drawer pulls. Others are a mix of style, colors and textures. Arts and craft store sell wood knobs and pulls, which can be painted in any style you like; that will satisfy your artistic vein, other than saving you money.

There are professional artists on the market who make excellent money in producing elaborate faux finishes. I know this process as I have described might sound simplistic. If you don’t have velleity of taking your refinished piece to the Guggenheim exhibition and you just want to give a second life to something old with interesting shapes, then don’t make the refinishing process complicated. Follow these simple steps and you will produce an attractive piece just like those in my photographs.

A few years ago I helped a person in France restyling her piece. She contacted me through Facebook, asked me questions about the furniture she wanted to refurbish, liked my answers and hired me to assist her in the production. I did not move one inch from my desk, our communications developed through Skype calls and emails. She purchased the knobs from my selection photographed in a store. Her French piece turned out beautiful. If you are stuck, let me help you or anyone you know in restoring your piece, it doesn’t matter where in the world you are. Ciao,
Valentina
www.Valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola has been in business as a designer since 1990. She has helped a variegated group of fun people realizing their dreams with homes, offices, interiors and exteriors. She is a designer well-known to bring originality to people’s homes. As an Italian designer and true to her origins, she provides only the best workmanship and design solutions.

She is the author of ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors, her forthcoming book on the subject of colors.
She is also a published author of two regional Italian cuisine books. Find her books on

Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0

Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Keep It Festive | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

29 Dec 2011 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ChristmasDecorating, #DecoratingAfterChristmas, #DecoratingTips, #DecoratingWithLights

Every year most people get the beautiful Christmas decorations up and functioning soon after Thanksgiving festivity. For more than a month we get used to live with shimmering colored lights, many different colored decorations, scented candles, crystal items and silver flatware. Everything looks so lucent and elegant. We do need all of this as a way to reward us for a year of hard work and to celebrate in style the passage into a new year with renewed hopes, dreams and goals, but as soon as we are into the new year the trees and decorations go down and the shimmering lights are turned off. I keep all of my Christmas decorations until January 6th to celebrate Epiphany Day. This is a Christian commemoration of the Magi or Wise Men’s visit to baby Jesus, which marks the end of all December festivities. Kids get another present, just like Jesus received incense, myrrh and gold from the Magi, the Christmas tree is taken down on that night with all the beautiful lights and decorations, Christmas markets close, holidays are over and officially the year starts.

Epiphany day was a fun day for kids. On that night of January 6th, my parents organized a tree dismantling party and invited other kids with their parents. Our Christmas tree, as most people did, had chocolate decorations hanging among all the other Christmas decorations.
With a draw, one kid at a time had to find the chocolate decorations as a price, whatever object the kid touched first, that was the item he/she had to take down first. If a chocolate decoration was found first, the game moved over to someone else. Another kid’s name was drawn to give everyone the chance to dismantle the tree and to find the chocolate pieces. Kids fought, laughed or exchanged items, according to each of their tempers or level of vices. This game lasted for hours, before all the decorations were down on the floor, but the tree game was the excuse to get the adults together for another eating feast. My mom and her sisters prepared the last treats of the holidays, generally it was panzerotti (small size stuffed calzone), or home-made pizza, potatoes coquettes, or arancini (rice balls), lot of vegetables, sweets, biscotti, pies and prosecco. This custom is now gone forever as Christmas is more of a consumerism event than a celebration of life, light, spirituality, love and New Year’s good intentions.

Whatever you do to take the Christmas decorations down, it remains the fact that at the start of the year the glitters and glamour are gone and that corner where the tree was is now in the dark. Some people suffer the blues after Christmas is over as they settle into winter, cold and short days. What do you do to avoid that? Redecorate, move furniture around or thinking of Spring already? In some parts of the world Spring may not come until late April, that’s a long time to stay depressed. For me it is easy and simple, as I have adopted a simpler life.

I keep some Christmas decorations around for the next three months. I choose to leave out the not so obvious Christmas decorations, but only one special item for each room, one with an attractive shape or color. First thing to do is to illuminate dark corners with some light decorations, hang something with a visual impact from the ceiling, embellish a doorknob, or a lamp. Glass balls or ornaments generally have interesting shapes and nice colors, I like to keep them in bowls on coffee table and furniture mixed in with other textures. I also like the idea of filling lanterns with colored balls and create an arrangement of three. After the holidays nothing will look Christmassy any more. Take a look at the photos to get an idea and perhaps you have some of your own you want to share with me.

Better Home and Garden

The ornaments will keep my house festive through some cold days while surprising some of my friends. In the meantime, while I am waiting patiently for Spring, I will think of new ways to redecorate and go through the process of cleaning out closets and cabinets. As it happens every January, there will be someone new who wants to take the renovating journey with me as their designer to guide them. It will be a new adventure just right for the new starting year. If you are ready to take that journey with me, do not hesitate to leave your name in the box.
Happy New Year, may all your wishes come true. Ciao,
Valentina
www.Valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior and Fashion Designer, working in the USA and Europe. She blends fashion and interior well in any of her design work. She loves to remodel homes and loves to create the unusual. She is also the author of ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors, the forthcoming book on the subject of colors and the author of two published book on Italian regional cuisine, available on

Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

My Christmas Village | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

21 Dec 2011 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #CharlesDickensChristmasVillage, #ChristmasColors, #ChristmasDecorations, #HandPaintedChristmasHouses, #HowToDecorateChristmas

I can finally take care of “building” my village. This year many days ran together, during the course of many weeks I lost at least one day every time and wondering where did my time go. How did I manage that? This year has been a real lesson for me and I will take care of my busyness at the beginning of next year, but now it is time to think of my Christmas village.
(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Years ago, I fell in love with hand painted houses representing Charles Dickens’s village. I was new in USA, seeing Christmas villages in stores were new thing for me, just as everything else was. I started to collect as many little houses I could until one day I had no more place to store them and stopped the collection.
The village I build for Christmas every year is my fantasy, not a real village. The style of architecture does represent Victorian England of early 1800s, the small statues of people are dressed in Victorian fashion, so darling, but everything else is a fantasy. I have a theatre for plays, comedies and ballet performances, the Opera House is grand. I have many pubs and restaurants, hotels, various shoppes, antique stores, a seamstress’s house, playgrounds for kids, the light house and a barn, an ice skate ring with moving people (battery operated), a few library buildings, a train station with a sound of a train coming and a real moving train, a battery operated toy. In my village there is no police station, no hospital, no government buildings and no schools. Hey, this is my village and in my fantasy we all learn from each other, we are all good to each others and help one another.

It takes many hours to put the village up, string all the lights inside the small houses, creating attractive streets and passages over bridges and gardens, arrange the houses to design an inviting village with the main drag with all the fashionable stores just as if I were a certified city planner. I like to place street benches next to cozy corners or views, kids and carriages in the right spots and attach all the sounds to make the village come alive. I like to keep all the lights and sounds turned on all day, but at night it becomes magic. The lay out of my village varies every year, streets and things to do are never the same and I amaze myself how many solutions I can create. It’s playtime!

I leave the rest of the room in suffuse lighting to allow the village to be on stage, when is completed it is quite beautiful. December is the only time of the year I can live almost in history, I get to step back in time to experience a much simpler and slower life even though is only in my fantasy and through toys. Perhaps during Charles Dickens’s time they said the same thing about a slower living style before the 1800s.

In a separate area of the room, away from the village display, I don’t miss to set up a spirituality corner with my little manger made in Germany by wood workers artists who are still designing small items all by hands and some angels made of Venetian glass made in Murano. LED light strings and candles everywhere illuminate the rest of the house.

The custom of turning on shiny, bright and colored lights in December comes from the burning the “Yule Log” in Germany, a medieval pagan festival that occurred every December to celebrate the winter Solstice and the short dark days of winter. The burning of the Yule Log was a way to welcome light, the return of the sun and it represented Jesus as the light of the world.

However I want to look at it, I am one of the few people who decorate Christmas in a different way. The important thing is to celebrate a new light that will take the darkness of the winter away from our life and project us into the New Year with a renewed spirituality and new goals toward the humanity and ourselves.

I hope you will come up with your own different display too and please remember I am always ready to decorate and design with you.
Have a Happy Christmas and happy holidays. Ciao,
Valentina

www.Valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior and Fashion Designer, working in the USA and Europe. She blends fashion and interior well in any of her design work. She loves to remodel homes and loves to create the unusual. She is the author of the forthcoming book on the subject of Colors entitled ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors, due to be published very soon.

Valentina’s books on the Italian regional cuisine are doing very well. They are available on

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Tempus Fugit | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

05 Dec 2011 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #AccessoriesCoordination, #AntiqueClocks, #Clocks, #DecoratingTips, #DecoratingWithClocks, #HomeDecor

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(Ballard Designs photos)

Tempus fugit is a Latin expression first recorded by Roman poet Virgil. The translation from Latin says:
“Time flees irretrievably, while we wander around, prisoners of our love of detail”.

Tempus fugit inscription was first seen on a sundial, today is found often on clocks. Up until the Babylonian invented the sundial, later perfected by the Greeks, people measured time with the raising and fall of the sun; with the change of weather they could tell what season they were in.

The need to have a device that would measure time rose in the Middle Age, around the 1300s when people’s life started to revolve around the concept “time is money” and if they could measure time they would know in a precise way how to dedicate the best time of the day to a productive work, when to stop for eating, when to return to work and when the day was over. Before the advent of clocks these tasks were measured by feelings, if they felt hungry they ate and if they felt tired they stopped.

The first clocks, mostly made of iron and very heavy in weight ended up on church towers to mark the church functions, the monks’ performances at different hours and to call in the faithful to take part of the religious life. The mechanical clocks came about three centuries later along with the pendulum and grandfather clocks, which we still enjoy in home décor today.

Many European countries invented each their own style of clocks, some were incased in beautiful wood species, furniture, or metal, some hung on the wall, some were made as table clock or fireplace mantel clock, some were lantern clocks surmounted over a large bell and some were even portable. One example of a portable clock, the musk-ball watch, struck me in particular. It had the shape of a ball with many holes pierced to let out the scent of herbs contained inside. The belief was that carrying herbs on the body would fight infection and certainly some stench, I agree with the latter, but why attach it to women’s girdle and not on top of the dress? It would have been easier to hear and see the time when the musk-ball watch would strike the hour with a sound. Curious, spicy episodes fill history and I am curious to learn them all.

Going back to Tempus Fugit, our perception tells us time flies, but time is space doesn’t exist. Often people waste time with nothing in particular, importance or urgency at any given moment. We know that time wasted is not recyclable and we feel guilt when we do waste it. However, I think that to allow some “nothing” time it is beneficial for our well-being and mind health, but only if we know how to balance nothing time with working time and achievements of the day.

I read this fascinating article on “What is Time?” http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/what-is-time/
Physicist Sean Carroll in explaining his theory of what time is, talks about the idea of entropy, a measure of how disorderly things are in the Universe, which started 13.7 billion years ago in a state of a perfect order, in a very low entropy and now looks like a giant mess in a high state of entropy.
We record time by recording the past, that’s our memory of time, today is still in the making, thus time really doesn’t matter yet and tomorrow doesn’t exist.
As Deepak Chopra says: “Today is a gift that’s why is called Present”.

We cannot trap time even if we try to measure it with clocks that can only mark the passing of our days and our activities. We can only follow time and be happy to live it, hopefully in full.

If we ought to decorate with clocks, how would we use them? In my house I have clocks everywhere, not because I am worried about time passing, but because I like to collect them. Each marks a different time, that’s my way of fooling time, or fooling myself, either way works for me.

A large clock in a small entry will definitively make a statement; a clock in a studio room will remind you to get up from the desk every seventy-five minutes and do office stretches; a mud room space with a clock will send a message that it is time to neatly tidy it up; a bedroom with clocks hanging from the ceiling speaks playtime, but what I really like is to fill up a wall with all bunch of clocks without any rule, in a high entropy just like the state of the Universe today. This would be a composition of clocks that doesn’t really tell time, but it reminds you it is time to be playful and to keep up with what matters the most in life.

I thought you might enjoy the Clocks by Coldplay: http://youtu.be/XbI1FpLd4Vk

As the professional who is always ready, I shall be prompt and ready to help you with any of your holiday needs, whether it will decorating, designing, or remodeling. Let me know by leaving your name down below, in which area you would like me to help you. Ciao,
Valentina
www.Valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola, is the principal designer and owner of Valentina Interiors & Designs. She is a trained designer and has been in business since 1990. She works on consultation and produces design concepts for remodeling, upgrading, new homes, décor restyling and home fashion. “Vogue Italy” magazine and many prominent publications in California featured Valentina’s work. She also has made four appearances on T.V. Comcast Channel 15.

She is the author of three books available on

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